The entropy of a half-BPS black hole in $N=4$ supersymmetric heterotic string compactification is independent of the details of the charge vector and is a function only of the norm of the charge vector calculated using the appropriate Lorentzian metric. Thus, in order for this to agree with the degeneracy of the elementary string states, the latter must also be a function of the same invariant norm. We show that this is true for generic CHL compactifications to all orders in a power series expansion in the inverse charges, but there are exponentially suppressed corrections which do depend on the details of the charge vector. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the black hole entropy reproduces the degeneracy of elementary string states to all orders in a power series expansion in the inverse charges, and helps us extend the earlier conjectured relation between black hole entropy and degeneracy of elementary string states to generic half-BPS electrically charged states in generic $N=4$ supersymmetric heterotic string compactification. Using this result, we can also relate the black hole entropy to the statistical entropy calculated using an ensemble of elementary string states that contains all BPS states along a fixed null line in the lattice of electric charges.

It has been shown recently that the geometry of D-branes in general topologically twisted $(2,2)$ sigma-models can be described in the language of generalized complex (GC) structures. On general grounds, such D-branes (called GC branes) must form a category. We compute the BRST cohomology of open strings with both ends on the same GC brane. In mathematical terms, we determine spaces of endomorphisms in the category of GC branes. We find that the BRST cohomology can be expressed as the cohomology of a Lie algebroid canonically associated to any GC brane. In the special case of B-branes, this leads to an apparently new way to compute $\mathrm{Ext}$ groups of holomorphic line bundles supported on complex submanifolds: while the usual method leads to a spectral sequence converging to the $\mathrm{Ext}$, our approach expresses the $\mathrm{Ext}$ group as the cohomology of a certain differential acting on the space of smooth sections of a graded vector bundle on the submanifold. In the case of coisotropic A-branes, our computation confirms a proposal of Orlov and one of the authors (A.K.).

We consider the problem of collapse of a self-gravitating Higgs field, with potential bounded below by a (possibly negative) constant. The behaviour at infinity may be either asymptotically flat or asymptotically AdS. This problem has recently received much attention as a source for possible violations of weak cosmic censorship in string theory. In this paper, we prove under spherical symmetry that ``first singularities'' arising in the non-trapped region must necessarily emanate from the centre. In particular, this excludes the formation of a certain type of naked singularity which was recently conjectured to occur.

Certain Hamiltonians, based on two coupled quantum mechanical\break spins, exhibit degenerate eigenvalues despite having no obvious non-Abelian symmetries. Operators acting to permute the degenerate states do not have a simple form when expressed as polynomials of the generators of rotations for the respective spins. As observed in [3], one such Hamiltonian helps explain resonances in the spin relaxation rate of optically pumped ${\rm Rb}_2$, as a function of applied magnetic field. We give an explanation of why the degeneracies exist, based on properties of the commutator and anti-commutator of the Hamiltonian and its image under magnetic field reversal.

We introduce a notion of topological M-theory and argue that it provides a unification of form theories of gravity in various dimensions. Its classical solutions involve $G_2$ holonomy metrics on 7-manifolds, obtained from a topological action for a 3-form gauge field introduced by Hitchin. We show that by reductions of this 7-dimensional theory, one can classically obtain 6-dimensional topological A and B models, the self-dual sector of loop quantum gravity in four dimensions, and Chern–Simons gravity in 3 dimensions. We also find that the 7-dimensional M-theory perspective sheds some light on the fact that the topological string partition function is a wavefunction, as well as on S-duality between the A and B models. The degrees of freedom of the A and B models appear as conjugate variables in the 7-dimensional theory. Finally, from the topological M-theory perspective, we find hints of an intriguing holographic link between non-supersymmetric Yang–Mills in four dimensions and A model topological strings on twistor space.